UNDERSTANDING DOCTOR DECISION MAKING: THE CASE OF DEPRESSION TREATMENT.

ABSTRACT: Treatment for depression is complex, requiring decisions that may involve trade-offs between exploiting treatments with the highest expected value and experimenting with treatments with higher possible payoffs. Using patient claims data, we show that among skilled doctors, using a broader portfolio of drugs predicts better patient outcomes, except in cases where doctors' decisions violate loose professional guidelines. We introduce a behavioral model of decision making guided by our empirical observations. The model's novel feature is that the trade-off between exploitation and experimentation depends on the doctor's diagnostic skill. The model predicts that higher diagnostic skill leads to greater diversity in drug choice and better matching of drugs to patients even among doctors with th

SUBMITTER: Currie JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7514077 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature